city of alexandria -v- cleco litigation
note: all copies of documents and the video are made available to wst... and to you, courtesy of local attorney and blogger gregory r. aymond public records request. wst... spoke to mr. aymond by phone and we asked him why he filed his public records request his response was that he couldnt comment on that.
on tuesday 12 june 2007 the alexandria, louisiana city council held a meeting and according to the city's agenda (copy here) the meeting was to be held pursuant to La RS 42:6.1 (A)(2). agenda item C 1) states: "to consider an executive session for an update from the administration regarding the matter of "city of alexandria vs. cleco corporation, et al"
sometime prior to 11 june 2007 attorney bridgett brown filed a "petition of intervention" which in effect made her an adverse party to the city of alexandria because ms. brown's petition was made part of the ongoing city of alexandria v cleco corporation lawsuit in the united states district court for the western district, alexandria, louisiana -- see civil action number 05-CV-1121-A.
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bridgett brown's petition of intervention
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the bridgett brown five
on 11 june 2007 five alexandria, louisiana city councilmen: city council president and district two councilman everett hobbs, city council vice president and district one councilman louis marshall; the two at large councilmen myron lawson and roosevelt johnson and district three councilman charles frederick smith, jr. each signed a letter to inform city attorney charles "chuck" johnson, the mayor jacques roy and the chief operating officer kay michiels that "it is our intent to enforce fully the terms of the agreement entered into by the city with ms. brown."
the councilmen's letter ends with "both the administrative and the legislative bodies must operate within the powers granted it under the city charter." then an admonishment to johnson, roy and michiels that they should "...read the charter and adhere to its provisions." thats real funny the councilmen would write this because the alexandria city charter at part 1, article IV administration: section 4-02 legal division (c) clearly states: "Any assistant city attorneys authorized by the city council shall be appointed by the city attorney and serve at his pleasure."
while its true that section 4-02 (D) states that "No special legal counsel shall be employed by the city except by written contract and approval of the city council." this is a moot point because you cant sue the city while at the same time be a city attorney...you follow? additionally the attorney rules of professional conduct prohibit it -- see : rule 1.6. confidentiality of information; rule 1.7. conflict of interest: current clients; rule 1.8. conflict of interest: current clients: specific rules; rule 1.13. organization as client. additionally, as charles johnson explained, the federal judge has already signed an order dismissing ms. brown as an attorney for the city and she has not signed a confidentiality agreement that the federal judge required to be privy to the mediation. therefore, how could ms. brown be in attendance at the executive session discussing these matters? all lawyers knew that, as is seen in their refusal to attend that meeting if ms. brown would be present.
according to mayor jacques roy, these letters were not delivered to the recipients johnson, roy and michiels until shortly before the 12 june 2007 city council meeting.
heres where things really get interesting.
the city council meeting was called to discuss the cleco litigation and the armested franklin v city of alexandria suit, which the last we heard is in ninth judicial district court division "f" (judge george c. metoyer) docket number 228,034. ms. brown is suing the city due to her intervention petition; her attorney is larry english and mr. english is also the attorney who is handling the armested suit. despite all this at least five alexandria city coucilmen are adamant about allowing ms. brown to attend the executive session in which the very suit that she is an adverse party to the city would be discussed and additionally a suit in which her attorney is representing the adverse party was to also be discussed. this is explained better in the video below where attorney trey gist says words to the effect that you cant sue the city and be the citys attorney at the same time.
can you see the deception? can you see what at least five alexandria city councilmen are trying to pull here? where is the rapides parish district attorney at? where is the louisiana state attorney general at or the louisiana state police or the louisiana attorney disciplinary board? as we see with the poverty point reservoir scam and the louisiana institute of film and technology scam is it going to take the fbi to come in and clean up yet another louisiana corruption problem?
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V I D E O
special alexandria city counsel meeting full unedited version released by the city under louisiana public records law, LSA-R.S. 44:1 et seq.
length 28m13s
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here to view from google video
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EXTERNAL LINK
